I am trying extremely hard to find out more about Elia, but her early life is still very much a mystery since she was not born in the United States. This has made my research quite a bit more difficult.

Elia feeding one of the pet lions at Woodside, c. late 1930s. In the film there are two distinct lions, so I am not sure which is the lion Bill. TLPS Archives.

However, here are some still shots from some of the Whittell Films that I just adore of her. She was NOT a woman who stayed inside and merely drank tea or knitted. She loved to travel and was very active. I have many pictures of her skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, swimming, and enjoying the outdoors.

As I am watching these films, I am wondering why so many of them are of Elia traveling. Was that so George could see what she was up to? So he felt included? Or was it just that they could afford the luxury at the time of having so many travels filmed? George did not accompany Elia on her international trips, but her niece Jacqueline is often present. I am looking forward to finding out more about Elia.

One of the best parts of the films is seeing the Lodge as it was when George Whittell Jr. was here and it was full of life. In a couple of screenshots from the Whittell films, we get some more clues as to changes that have taken place on the grounds over the years. The first shot we have GW proudly holding a fish. The second shot we have a unnamed a worker feeding a bit of the fish to one of GW’s dogs. We can see to the left of GW a running waterfall that is currently a bench. You also will note fewer trees than we have today. As for the worker in white, I am trying to figure out exactly who he is. Where the worker is standing is currently where the metal stairway from the terrace ends. The pictures below are from roughly the same viewpoint today and you can really see the changes. – Jesse

Not to skip around on wives too much – a history of Josie is in the works – but I wanted to write a brief note about Elia Pascal’s name (Elia being George Whittell Jr.’s last wife). A common assertion is that she is a descendant of the 17th century philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal.

However, Blaise Pascal never married or had children. He lived life as a relatively unhealthy man, focused on the sciences, religion, math, and philosophy. He died at the age of 39. It does not appear that his sister had children either.

Elia is NOT related to the famous French mathematician.

And yes…much, much more on Elia to come! I just wanted to clear this one up since it is an easy one to verify.

For simplicity of this piece, the Whittells are accordingly referred to as Jr. and Sr.

The below is not an academic monograph by any means, but rather I am attempting to make some sense of the events which took place. There are no footnotes, but if you would like my sources, mostly newspapers (which of course are not extremely reliable), please ask and I will happily provide them. The opinions expressed are mine and mine alone, I am sure some of our fellow Whittell fans could take me up in some wonderful debate about this and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments!

Florence Boyere

Florence and Jr. met sometime around 1901 or so while she was still married and in New York. Jr. visited New York often with his family and his grandmother Adeline lived in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. Florence states in court papers that she filed for divorce around July 1902 from her first husband Homer Selby on grounds of adultery. She left for Paris immediately after her filing. Before leaving, she states that Jr. gave her a written promise to marry her within a week after the divorce was finalized. She returned from Paris around August. Shortly after her return the divorce was completed. However, it was not Florence who quickly went back to the altar, but rather her former husband Homer Selby who quickly remarried Florence’s sister, Rose.

So Florence had Jr. sign another note of promise of marriage. According to Florence, Jr. gave Sr. these written promises to secure a financial arrangement. Florence also supposedly sent Sr. hundreds of letters from Jr. promising her marriage and other things, to prove to Sr. that Jr. loved her. Those papers, if they did indeed exist, were never seen again.

Tired of Jr.’s wavering on marriage, Florence told him that she would not go out on a particular evening unless he married her. She was worried about her reputation and he was not committing like he promised. By all accounts this really angered Jr., so he marriage contract which he promised worked in the state of New York. He agreed to renew the contract every six months to appease her. They signed the contract and it was witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Henshall, in whose home the contract was executed on December 2, 1902. Florence had been living with the family at the time. To be legal in New York, a marriage contract had to be recorded with the county. Jr. claimed he indeed recorded it, swore to Florence he did, but the county clerks had no record of it. However, a different account states that Florence knew it was not recorded, but did not insist on the filing because Jr. had promised her a large and formal wedding in San Francisco. Regardless, Florence believed him at the time and they went out for the evening. There were two copies of the contract: one of which was destroyed (some say she destroyed it as a joke, others say he did); the second copy Florence kept. Jr. told her to destroy it, but she said she lost it and kept it hidden from him. This was a smart move because amidst all the legal findings, this copy was the only written evidence Florence had of their relationship.

Florence traveled alone to California mid-March of 1903. At this point it seems that Jr. had gotten what he wanted from Florence and had mostly abandoned her. She lived in the California Hotel and the Lick House under the name of F.M. Bronner. At some point she figured out she was not being treated like a wife and supported, so she got herself an attorney to file for divorce. Most accounts agreed she was ignored by the Whittells, perhaps with a few exceptions of dinner with the family. It does not seem that Jr. ever had any real interest in making her his wife or formalizing the marriage.

By September 1903, the newspapers had announced the formal engagement of Miss Pearl Landers to Jr. It was not until November of 1903 that the contract marriage scandal of Florence and Jr. became public. Shortly after that, the Landers engagement was called off.

Not exactly sure how the press decided Florence was French artist, but they liked scandal more than facts.

The Whittells counter-sued and Florence replied she was abandoned without provocation and without her consent on August 1st. She also stated in her reply that Jr.’s monthly allowance was $500 per month (about $13,500 in today’s dollars) and she asked for $200 per month in alimony. However, should would only receive payment if the marriage was found as legal. She wanted $100,000 (over $2.5 million today) in damages if the marriage was not found as legal. Judge Troutt, who would sit on the Whittell and Boyer cases throughout the years, found that the marriage was not legal as it was never recorded and threw out the damage suit. Florence did receive $500 from the Whittells for legal costs. There is a note that Sr. would pay Florence $25,000 if she waived her right to appeal.

That was not the end of it though. While the marriage was found void, meaning there was no divorce or annulment between Florence and Jr., the legal wrangling went on for another year.

It is unclear whether Florence ever actually received any of the money.

The main attorney for the Whittells was Charles Hanlon (some reports name him as William Hanlon, but Charles is correct). During the above suits, the main papers for the case went missing. All fingers pointed to Hanlon, especially once the papers in question were simply returned to the court clerk by one of Hanlon’s legal aids with no comment, as if nothing had happened. You might be wondering why it was a big deal that these papers went missing for a very short time: according to Hanlon, the agreement with Florence was that the supposed marriage would be kept secret from the public or else she would not get her settlement of $25,000. Florence claimed the agreement was so long as she did not tell the story of the marriage, she would get paid. The story got out because of the missing papers and the press jumped on it. The papers went missing in November 1903, as noted above, that is when the entire story went public. It was not until April of 1905 that her suit against Hanlon for fighting her about the details of the agreement was settled in Florence’s favor. The settlement states she would receive $500 (with interest) and not the original amount of $25,000 and noted that Sr. wanted to appeal yet again. Of course he could have easily afforded to pay her and perhaps he did, as no further court records of a continued battle between the Whittells and Florence can be found.

During all of this, Florence stayed in San Francisco and claimed the town “was big enough to hold the two of us.” She can be traced in the City Directory using the name Mrs. Florence Boyere. It seems she married a man named Claude Cornelius in 1918. He owned his own plumbing supply company, was a member of the Bohemian Club, and the marriage was a surprise to everyone. I can trace them together up to 1923. In 1924 he leaves San Francisco, working on ships in various jobs, then I find him in the 1930 census as a lodger in Michigan listed as a widower. It seems that Florence died sometime in 1923/24 and Claude did not take it well and sold off his company and became a drifter. I cannot find an obituary or grave or any hints of children. I had hoped she had a longer and happier story.

For the most part, it was Senior, not Junior, fighting Florence over the contract and the money. It seems that Jr. made Florence some big promises to get his way with her and then once the fun was over, the thrill gone, he skipped off to the next conquest, leaving his father to fight the battle with Florence. Of course the amount of money fought over was trivial to the Whittells but, to Florence who was a divorced woman in a new city, it was her entire livelihood. I have a hard time imagining that Jr. realized the predicament he put Florence in. The young George Whittell Jr. lived for fun and loved his fast cars and women. This pattern of marriage and then boredom and eventual abandonment would be seen again with his second wife Josephine. His last wife, Elia seemed to have caught an older and more mature Whittell Jr., but their relationship was very different.

So in truth, George Whittell Jr. had only two wives and one sad and messy affair with a divorcée from New York.

I hope I made this messy situation somewhat clear and I am glad I had the opportunity to share more of Florence’s story. – Jesse

This spring, the curatorial team at Thunderbird Lake Tahoe started working on the Whittell Film Project.

The first thing that had to happen was to transfer the 16-millimeter movies from the original reels to digital files. This was completed by Grace McKay at Electric Pictures. The process was not as simple as just moving the images from the reels to a DVD by any means. Rather, we literally had to clean (wash) the films many times. They were just dirty.

Here we can see the dirt being removed from a film.

The first cleaning used a Lispner-Smith 1100 pro-film cleaner, followed by a process that included wet-gate dirt and scratch removal. After cleaning, we went to work on the actual images themselves! This meant reformatting some frames and correcting the color in each and every scene.

You can see an image from the film real to the right and on the left the monitors showing the color variances.

The films range in date from the 1930s to 1950s. Due to this range, there were several different film and color techniques found on each reel which made the process considerably more tedious than originally planned. Additionally, one reel was spliced with several others, meaning the film varied in type, speed, and quality all on one reel. This made for an interesting mix of content and makes one wonder if Mr. Whittell assembled this compilation to capture his favorite moments?

One reel was so badly damaged that the color was gone and there was a great deal of scratching. However, Grace was still able to retrieve the images from that reel.

A scene from the earliest reel. This is actually a color reel; however, over time the color was lost. To the far right in white is Elia Whittell. Reel 15, TLPS Collection.

Today, we have stored the original reels in archival canisters for future safekeeping. The digital copies are captured using the latest digital technology and are ready for the next step of the project: creating an introductory film for tours here at Thunderbird Lake Tahoe.

Currently, we are taking screen shots like what you see here and using them not only for reference, but to aid us in better understanding the history of Thunderbird Lodge, Thunderbird yacht, George Whittell Jr., and key players in his life. We now know what Whittell’s voice sounds like. We know what a heavy accent his cook brought with her from Lithuania. We discovered the original Whittell burgee on the Thunderbird yacht, along with the solarium on the Lodge that is long gone. The films give us so many clues about what life was like here in the glory days of the Castle. However, along with these helpful bits of history, the films capture personal moments that would have otherwise been lost forever otherwise. Of note is hearing snippets of conversation between Mae Mollhagen and George Whittell.

Mae and the Captain walking down the path at the Lodge. Reel 2, TLPS Collection

The conversation, while short and interrupted, gives us a great deal of insight into their relationship. It is very clear she was the one in charge and he deferred to her; one can immediately tell that Mae was a strong character. Of course this is only a tiny moment in a long relationship, but it still provides insight about what once was.

These movies are wonderful primary sources that will provide us a great deal of content for all sorts of future programming. We are sincerely grateful to Nancy Binz for making this project possible!

The judgment roll in the case of George Whittell Jr. against Florence Boyere, the suit which was so carefully manipulated by the attorneys in the case, particularly Charles Hanlon, attorney for the plaintiff, that all knowledge of it was suppressed for days, is at last complete. The missing papers, namely, the deposition of Miss Boyere and her answer and cross-com-plaint, which mysteriously disappeared from the County Clerk’s office the day the case was tried, were returned late yesterday afternoon. The man who brought them back was “William G. Cousins, Attorney Hanlon’s man-of-all work, the man who repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the case the papers connected with it the day the fact that they were missing was discovered. He walked Into Judge Troutt’s courtroom yesterday afternoon, deposited the papers with the Judge, coolly informed his Honor that they were the papers in the “Whittell case and walked out, vouchsafing no explanation as to their whereabouts since November 9, the. day the action was surreptitiously tried and adjudicated.

STORY IS REVEALED. The character of the papers make plain the attorney’s reason for keeping them out of sight. Had they been seen it would have been impossible to keep

from the public the story of the contract marriage of young Whittell, the grandson of Nicholas Luning, the famous money-lender, and beautiful Florence Boyere, the divorced wife of Homer Selby, the brother of “Kid” McCoy, the pugilist. At present she is the sister-in-law of Selby, for a short time after the erstwhile Mrs. Selby got her divorce on the ground of infidelity he married her pretty sister, Rosalie Boyere. The papers would also have revealed that Attorney Hanlon’s suit over “adverse claims” (for such was the type of action he brought at the request of Whittell’s father to determine the validity of the contract marriage) was a suit in which not only was the contract itself involved, but the property of young Whittell and also his honor. For Miss Boyere in her cross-complaint alleges that Whittell betrayed her under promise of marriage. For this she asked for $100,000 damages, but waived her right to monetary balm in the event that’ the evidence adduced would show that she was the lawful wife of Whittell.

CONTRACT IN EVIDENCE.

Miss Boyere’s deposition showed that the alleged marriage took place in New York, December 2, 1902, at the home of Charles T. Henshall. Previous to that time she held a written agreement of Whittell’s to make her his wife, but this she surrendered to his father, and it was destroyed. The contract marriage, however, she held, and it was made part of the evidence In the case. It reads as follows: December 2. 1002. I hereby agree to and have married George Whittell Jr. to-night. FLORENCE M. BOYERE. I hereby agree to and have married Florence M. Boyere to-night. GOEORGE WHITTELL JR. .Witnesses— Charles T. Henshall, Grace E. Henshall.” In “her deposition she says that the night the contract was executed she asked, in response to Whittell’s request that “she become his wife, that some one to preform the ceremony be sent for, but he suggested the contract. He then begged her not to record it on the ground that he feared- his father would learn of his becoming a benedict. He fairly cried for her to marry ‘him, she says, agreeing that in the event of her becoming his bride he would rernew the contract every six months. She also states that she was left penniless in Chicago, and that before coming but here she was compelled to pawn her sealskin coat and her jewelry.

This is one of only two known photographs of Florence Boyere that I have been able to find. However, this is from a newspaper article about the divorce and I cannot verify it is her. Click on the photo to reach the larger picture and article. You will also see that I purposefully cropped this.

George Whittell Jr. was married three times, this is one of the few things I can truly verify. However, finding out more about his first wife has been very difficult, as it was a tumultuous and strange affair.

From newspapers and other sources that vary in reliability, the following is what I could sketch out about Florence:

She was born in De Pere Wisc., in June of 1878. She was the daughter of a poor fisherman and worked as a waitress for two years before moving to New York. This is according to an article from the Minneapolis Journal in 1903 (during the marriage struggle with Whittell).

Her marriage to Whittell was not her first. When she was about 18 years old, she married Homer Hayes Selby (b.1876) in Chicago on October 13, 1899. This record can be found in the Cook County clerk’s office. However, take a look at the announcement in The Journal News and notice her name. Another reason we cannot take what we read in the newspapers for certain:

The Journal News (Hamilton, Ohio) 14 October 1899, page 8.

Homer eventually went from prize-fighting to theater management and we find Florence and Homer living in New York for the 1900 census. You will also see that Rose and Mary Boyere, Florence’s sisters, are living with them.

1900 Census listing Homer, Florence, Rose, and Mary in New York.

Rose was 19 with no occupation listed and Mary was 18 and listed as an actress. Most likely she worked at the theater that Homer was listed as managing. An interesting piece of information is that Florence was noted as being born in English Canada, her sisters are noted as born in Indiana. Another oddity is that it states that Mary and Rose’s parents were from Indiana, but “Canada Eng” is noted for Florence’s parents. Was this a typo on the part of the census taker? 1898 is listed as the year of naturalization for Florence.

We know that it would be only two years later that Florence would be entangled with the Whittell family. While I have not found evidence of the divorce from Homer, it seems that it did not take long for Homer to find a new wife, that being Rose Boyere. They are listed as married in subsequent censuses and a few articles make mention of this as the Whittell fiasco played out.

So how did George Whittell Jr. and Florence meet? That I am not sure of…but their marriage, or contract, or whatever you would like to call it played out in court for longer than their courtship…more to follow!

The above photo was found in the TLPS archives along with the photographs of Flora Whittell and Adeline Duncombe Williams. However, there are no markings or notes on this image to give me any clue who this lady could be. I hope to eventually find her story! The tricky part is we do not have any Whittells that I know of (yet) in Baltimore. I hope that eventually I can share with you who this lovely lady is!